Machine for making anti-skid concrete road surfaces



8-- 5, 19753 H. s. NAGlN 2,845,851

MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETE: ROAD SURFACES Filed June a, 1952 a Sheets-Sheet 1 LL] [I I1] ILLIJIHI Ill lllll l In Aug. 5, 1958 H. s. NAGI N 2,845,851

MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETE ROAD SURFACES Filed June 3, 1952 r 8 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

H. S. NAGlN Aug. 5, 1958 MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETE ROAD SURFACES Filed June 3. 1,952

a Sheets- Sheet 3 III III Ill I II

5, 1958 H. s. NAGIN 2,845,851

MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETEROAD SURFACES Filed June 3. 1952 a Sheets-Sheet 4 Zmmvrox H. S. NAGIN MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETE-ROAD SURFACES Filed June a. 1952 8 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR.

arr-aPA/a r31 H. s. NAGIN Aug. 5, 1958 MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETE ROAD SURFACES Filed June 3, 1952 8 Sheets-Sheet 6 H. s. NAGIN Aug. 5, 1958 MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETE ROAD SURFACES s Sheets-Sheet '7" Filed June 3. 1952 z- 5, 1958 H. s. NAGIN' 2,845,851

MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETE ROAD SURFACES Filed June 3. 1952 8 Sheets-Sheet 8 glgl fifkla w 7 INVENTOR.

a r TORA/E raj Unite MACHINE FOR MAKING ANTI-SKID CONCRETE ROAD SURFACES Application June 3, 1952, Serial No. 291,430

4 Claims. (Cl. 94-45) This invention relates to anti-skid surface for concrete roads. More particularly, the invention relates to machines for making grooves in the surface of a concrete road with such a design that when the grooves are filled with an abrasive cement the grooved surface will overcome the tendency of rubber-tired automobiles and trucks to skid on the surface.

The concrete decks of bridges and the concrete surfaces of paved roads, specially on curves, present hazards to the most careful drivers of automobiles and trucks. Although the bridge decks and concrete road surfaces give good traction when the surface is clean and dry, these surfaces are vulnerable to skidding when they become wet or have a thin coating of ice or gravel thereon.

I have found that if narrow grooves of substantial depth are formed in the deck or road surface so as to cross the surface at approximately right angles to the longitudinal axis of the road, and these grooves are filled with an abrasive cement which is harder than the cement from which the concrete road is made, such a surface will be substantially skid-proof. It is important to make the cuts with well-formed side walls, so that the filling material will be anchored in the grooves and supported by the concrete road. Further, the filling material must be united with the body of the concrete road between the grooves so that the surface of the road between the grooves will not be weakened and caused to disintegrate. The groove-filled ribs must be close enough so that two ribs will be engaged by an automobile tire at one time.

The inherent nature of cement, concrete and the methods of laying road surfaces will not permit strips or ribs to be placed in the surface as it is laid. Therefore, I have devised a practical method of inserting the anti-skid strips in a road surface so that it will be serviceable and eflective against skidding.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a method of and apparatus for grooving a concrete road surface so that an anti-skid cement may be anchored in the grooves to form a strong monolithic ribbed surface which will wear well and provide a nonskid surface.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method of and apparatus for grooving a concrete road surface rapidly and at a comparatively low cost.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the method of and apparatus for inserting non-skid strips in the surface of concrete roads.

The various features of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of concrete road surface grooving machine embodying a preferred form of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation of the grooving cutters shown on the machine of Fig. 1 but for clarity of illustration only the motors and cutters on the side of the machine nearest the viewer are shown;

Fig. 3 is a view in front elevation of one pair of grooving cutters of the machine of Fig. 1;

States Patent Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing the relation of groove cutters in making six pairs of grooves across the face of a concrete road;

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view of a concrete'road illustrating a groove filler for filling grooves in a road surface with abrasive cement;

Fig. 6 is a top plan view of a modified form of transverse groove cutting machine;

Fig. 7 is an end elevation of the groove cutting machine illustrated in Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a top plan view of the cutter carrier used in the machine of Fig. 6;

Fig. 9 is a side elevation of the cutter carrier used in the machine of Fig. 6;

Fig. 9a is a detail view in side elevation of a link and cam for raising the groove cutter shown in Fig. 9;

Fig. 10 is a view in front elevation of the machine carriage of Fig. 6, showing the driving mechanism for the cutter carriage; v

Fig. 11 is a detail vertical sectional view of a concrete road showing the shape of the grooves that are cut in a road surface with the machine of Figs. 1 and 12;

Fig. 12 is a top plan view of a third type of groove cutting machine embodying the present invention for cutting a spiral groove in a concrete road;

Fig. 13 is a view in side elevation showing the rotating carrier and the cutters of the grooving machine shown in Fig. 12; and

Fig. 14 is a view in side elevation showing the cutters, cutter carrier, and cement layer of the groove cutting machine of Fig. 12.

The groove cutting machine illustrated more particularly in Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive, consists of a carriage 14 mounted on wheels 16 which has a carrier 18 positioned transversely across the carriage. The carrier 18 consists of two pairs of chains 20 (Fig. 1) which run between pulleys 22 with the tight run of the chains 20 passing above the body of the carriage 14 and the loose run of the chain passing below the body of the carriage (see Fig. 2). To the chains .20 are attached a series of frames 24 (Fig. 3) in each of which are mounted two cutting disks 26. The cutting disks 26 are mounted on the ends of shafts 28 of motors 30 by which the disks are rapidly rotated for the purpose of cutting grooves in the concrete surface. The frame 24 is made up of side members 32 which have arms 34 that are connected with links of chains 20 (Fig. 3), and arms 36 which are provided with rollers 40 that roll on the surface of the concrete road. Between the side frames 32 are connected tie members 42 (Figs. 1 and 3) which hold the frame in rigid position and support the motors and disks in the desired position for cutting the grooves in the surface of the road. The cutters 26 and motors 30 are so supported in the frames 24 that the plane of the surface of the cutters form an acute angle with each other in order to cut grooves in the road such as illustrated in Fig. 11. Two cutter disks are required for cutting a groove, as hereinafter explained. The motors are mounted for adjustment on trunnions 43 so that disks in the frames may be adjusted in the frame such that the cuts made by two disks will cross each other with narrow portions of the intersecting grooves at the surface of the road. The adjustment of motors 30 on trunnions 43 will act to vary the depth of groove being out in the roadway. The grooves extend below the surface of the road a distance equal to substantially twice the width of a cutter disk. As illustrated in Fig. 11, the pair of cuts in the road surface is wider at the base thereof than at the point of entrance'of the cutter at the surface of the road so that when the groove is filled with an abrasive cement the hardened cement thereover to fill the grooves with abrasive cement.

will be Well anchored in the groove and will form a strong monolithic structure at the road surface.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, in which for purposes of more clearly showing the arrangement only the motors and cutters on the near side of the machine are shown, six sets of disk cutters are mounted on the carrier 18, and these cutters are positively carried across the surface of the road by movement of the chains 20 and rotation of pulleys 22. The movement of the carrier chains is obtained by means of a motor 44 which is mounted on the body of the carriage 14 and is connected by sprockets and chain for positively driving the axles of the pulleys 22. In the normal operation for cutting the grooves, the chains 20 will make a complete movement of the circuit to carry all six of the pairs of cutter disks across the road and then the movement of the chains will be stopped. When the chains are stopped, the cutter frames will all be above the road as shown in Fig. 2, and then the carriage will be advanced a distance equal to the sum of the distances apart of six grooves. Thereafter the chains 20 will be driven by motor 44 to bring the cutters 26 into contact with road surface, and the motors 30 of the disks will be set into operation when a trolley 46 engages a trolley bar 48 mounted on the bottom side of the carriage 14. Electric power may be supplied to the trolley bar 48 by a motor generator set (not shown) which preferably is mounted on carriage 14. The motors 30 will continue to rotate as the disks are carried across the road by the chains 20, and will discontinue rotation when the trolley 46 becomes disengaged from the bar 48. As the cutting disks move from the end of the cutting position back to the starting position, the motors 30 for the cutter disks are idle.

Referring to Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration of an arrangement of the cutter disks which are mounted on the carrier 18. The disks shown in Fig. 4 may be numbered 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70 and 72 for the purpose of illustration. It will also be noted that the disks are mounted in staggered relation across the carrier and two disks are mounted on each frame of the carrier; for example, disks 50 and 72 are on one frame; 52 and 70 are on another frame, and then disks 54 and 68; 56 and 66; 58 and 64, and 60 and 62 are on following frames. All of the disks shown in the lower part of Fig. 4 cut grooves with an angle such as illustrated at 74 in Fig. 11, and all of the disks shown in the upper part of Fig. 4 cut grooves at an angle such as shown at 76 in Fig. 11. It will be noted that one disk follows the other, and each of the disks of the lower row cuts a groove independently of the groove cut 'by the disks of the upper row. As the six pairs of disks pass across the roadway twelve cuts are made. The spacing of the cutters 26 is the same on each frame 24 and this determines the spacing of the grooves formed in the roadway. With the frames following one another in staggered relation the left-hand cutter of a following frame will enter the groove cut by the right-hand cutter of the next preceding frame. Therefore after the cutters have made a set of cuts across the roadway, the carriage is advanced a distance equal to the spacing apart of six grooves. Only one groove of the pair will be cut by the right cutter of the last frame, and the carriage when advanced will be positioned to place the left cutter of the first frame in the groove of the incompleted pair of grooves of the preceding set of cuts.

After the carrier chains 18 have made one complete rotation to finish six complete grooves, a concrete bucket is moved across the roadway to fill the grooveswith an abrasive cement which is harder and more abrasive than the material from which the concrete road is made. The abrasive concrete bucket 78 is attached to links of chains 20 immediately behind the last bucket on the carrier to pass over the road as illustrated in Fig. 2. In Fig. is illustrated six grooves with a concrete bucket 78 passing A series of openings 80 (Fig. 5) are formed in the bottom of the bucket, One opening being positioned above each groove. Below and behind the bucket is mounted in a pressure roller 82 for each groove, such as illustrated more particularly in Fig. 2 for the purpose of pressing down the cement which has been inserted in the groove throughthe openings 80. Preferably the grooves which are cut in the road are filled immediately after they have been cut so that a monolithic surface is formed. The carrier 18 may be used for pulling the bucket 78 back and forth across the carriage 14 in the same way that the carrier frames 24 are carried across the carriage.

In Figs. 6, 7, 8 and 9 and 10 are illustrated a second form of a machine for grooving a concrete road surface. This form of apparatus is mounted on a three-wheel carriage 84, which is adapted to move along a roadway which is to be grooved transversely of the longitudinal axis of the road. The carriage wheels 87 are carried by trucks 88 which are rotatably mounted at the base of vertical posts 89 of the carriage 84. The trucks may be rotated by handles 90 to set them at any desired angle, and be locked in position by latches 91 to arrange the wheels 87 for movement along a bridge deck to maintain the position of the carriage for cutting grooves. The latches 91 which are only schematically shown are of a character commonly used in dollies and wheeled industrial equipment. As shown the latch is a pivoted element having one edge which engages one of several notches in the periphery of the pedestal at the base of each post above each wheel mounting. The wheels 87 are positively driven by a motor 92 which is mounted on the carriage 84 and connected through a speed reducer 93 with a gear box 94. A shaft 95 having a gear 96 engages a bevel gear 97 on a horizontal shaft 98 (Fig. 10). The shaft 98 extends into the front posts 89 and is connected by bevel gears 99 with vertical shafts 100 rotatably mounted in the posts. The shafts 100 are connected by bevel gears 101 with the axles 102 on which wheels 87 are fixed. Bevel gears 103 in the mid portion of shaft 98 connect shaft 98 with a shaft 104 (Fig. 6) which extends to the rear post 89 and is connected with a shaft similar to shaft 100, to the axle for the rear wheel 87. Gear controls are mounted in box 94 by which the wheels 87 may be rotated in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. The wheels 87 must be in parallel alignment to go forward or backward. To turn the carriage, each of the individual wheel trucks may be angularly adjusted manually through the operation of the handles 90 so that when the wheels are driven by the motor, the carriage will be turned.

The machine illustrated in Figs. 6 to 10 is constructed to cut perpendicular grooves in the concrete roadway. As shown in Fig. 7, four cutting wheels 107 are mounted on a shaft 108 which projects outwardly from a gear box 109 mounted in a supporting frame 110 at the end of the motor housing 111. The motor 111 is connected with the gear drive 109 which is manually controlled to control the cutting operation. The gear box 111 is a standard speed reducing gear furnished as part of the motor. The frame 110 is connected with a carrier 112 (Figs. 8 and 9) which is mounted to travel across the carriage 84 on tracks 114 that extend from the front to the rear of the carriage. The carrier is mounted on four flanged wheels 115 that ride in the rails 114. When cutting grooves in the roadway, the cutter disks 107 are rotated and simultaneously the carrier is moved transversely of the road. To move the carrier, a threaded block 116 (Figs. 8 and 9) on the carrier 112 is mounted on a screw 117 which extends from gear box 94 at the front of the carriage 84 to a bearing 117 at the rear of the carriage (Fig. 6). A reversing link 118 is mounted on the carriage parallel to the screw 117 which carries pins 119 arranged to be engaged by an arm 120 secured to the block 116 to shift the link 118 and a bell crank 121 in the gear box 94 to change the direction of rotation of the screw 117. Thereby the carrier 115 will be carried back and forth by the screw. The reversing link 118 may be set in neutral position to allow the carrier 112 to remain stationary. The screw is rotated by the motor 92 through the gear box 94. The speed reducer 93 is used to control the rate of movement of the carrier for the cutting stroke. Preferably the gears for the return movement of the carrier will give a quick return.

. The grooves are preferably cut from right to left (viewing Fig. 6) and when the carrier 112 has made its cutting movement, it is raised through the operation of the mechanism including the link 124 hereinafter described to clear the cutters from the road surface and then the gear shift is operated to return the carrier to the starting side. A series of openings 122 are placed in the shifting lever 118 to vary the travel of the carrier.

The frame 110, motor 111, and gear box 109 are quite heavy to steady the operation of the cutters 107. The frame 110 to which parts are connected, is pivoted at 110a at the rear to a downwardly projecting arm 123 (Fig. 9) on the carrier 112 and is suspended near the front end by a link 124 which has an opening 125' (Fig. 9a) engaging an eccentric cam 126 fixed on a shaft 127 journaled in the carrier 112. A worm gear 128 fixed on the shaft 127 meshes with a worm on a shaft 129 driven by a motor 130 mounted on the carrier 112. Rotation of the shaft from the position shown causes the cam 126 to raise the link 124 and thereby rock the frame 110 in a vertical arc to raise the cutters 107. The rotation of the motor is automatically stopped at the end of the lifting movement of cam 126. A continued rotation of the motor will lower the cutters for making the grooves in the road, at which point the motor may be automatically stopped. The opening 125 is sufiiciently long so that when the cutters engage the surface of the paving the lifting cam can continue to rotate and the weight of the assembly then bears on the periphery of the cutters so that as they cut they can sink by their own weight to their full limit permitted by the slot 125 and the position of the cam 126. In other words, there is a lost motion connection provided between the mounting and the lifting means through the elongated slot or opening 125 in the link.

Preferably the grooves formed by cutting disks 107 are filled with an abrasive cement immediately after they are formed. To accomplish this, a cement bucket 131 (Fig. 9) is mounted in the frame 110 behind the cutters 107. The bucket has a series of spouts 132, one for each groove being cut, to direct cement into the grooves. Rollers 133 are mounted on the bucket 131 behind each spout to press the cement into the grooves.

Attention is called to the fact that with all of the rotary disks for cutting grooves, diamond points are mounted in the peripheral cutting face of the disks so that a smooth faced groove is out without breaking away the sides of the grooves in the concrete. When this smooth faced groove is filled with cement, it becomes a solid monolithic structure, so that the road surface will not disintegrate under heavy traffic. The hard abrasive cement preferably projects slightly above the surface of the road for the purpose of giving traction to automotive tires, but the abrasive cement \m'll provide on the surface, a series of low ridges to which the tires may grip to prevent skidding.

A third form of road surface grooving machine is illustrated in Figs. 12, 13 and 14. This form of machine consists broadly in mounting a pair of disk cutters On a rotary carrier which makes a complete rotation, and preferably the carrier is mounted on a carriage which is advanced as the carrier rotates, so that a spiral shaped groove is cut in the surface of the road. The carriage 134 is mounted on wheels 136 which preferably has a driving rod 137 geared to the axles of the wheels 136. The driving rod 137 is driven by a motor 138 with which it has a worn drive connection 139. A carrier 140 is connected to the lower end of a vertical shaft 141 (Fig. 13) which is rotatably mounted in bearings 142 of the main body of the carriage 134. The carrier is rotated by means of a'motor 144 which has a worm drive connection 146 with the shaft 141. The disk cutters 148 are mounted on shafts 150 extending from motors 152 and 154 which are adjustably connected with the carrier 140. The disks 148 are mounted on a curved bar 156. The bar 156 is connected at its leading end to the carrier 140 by a pivoted link 158. The rear end of the bar has a refractory cement bucket 160 connected thereto, and a brace rod 162 (Fig. 12) extends from the bucket to the carrier 140. With this pivotal connection, the weight of the motors will hold the disks 148 in cutting position in the road. A pressure roll 163 is secured to the back side of the bucket 160 behind each cement spout to force cement deposited by the bucket spout into the grooves in the pavement. A post 164 (Fig. 14) having leveling rolls 166 mounted in the bottom thereof, is attached to thebar 156 in advance of the cutter motor 154. In order to raise the cutter disks, rolls 166 and cement bucket up above the road surface to permit the carriage 134 to be moved from place to place, a winch 168 (Fig. 14) is mounted on the carriage 134 above the bar 156. Cables 170 and 172 are connected respectively to the post 164, and bucket 160, and pass around winch 168 to raise and lower the cutter disks. The motors 152 and 154 are adjustably mounted on the bar 156 by clamping frames 157 to position the cutting disks 148 at an acute angle to the vertical to make the cuts illustrated in Fig. 11. One disk makes the cut 74, while the other disk makes the cut 76, and both enter the roadway so as to make the cuts intersect at the road surface. Electric power wiring connections 1'74 extend from each of the motors 152 and 154 to a slip ring 176 on the carriage to supply electric current for operating the motors while the carrier is being rotated. The angular setting of the cutting disks 148 assists in positioning the cutters for making the spiral groove.

It has been found that in order to securely anchor strips of refractory cement in the grooves in the road, it is necessary to make the depth of the groove from one and one-half to two times the width of the groove.

In Fig. 12 is illustrated by curves 178 the spiral shape of the groove which is cut by the rotary disks as the carrier makes its complete rotation while the carriage is advancing a distance equal to the spacing of the grooves in the road surface. It will be note-d that the grooves intersect one another as the grooving continues, but these intersections will be filled with cement and will act to effectively provide a non-skid surface for the road.

It will be noted that with all of the forms of machines used in grooving the face of the concrete road, that the grooves extend transversely of the longitudinal axis of the road and transversely of the normal line of travel of motor vehicles on the road. The abrasive cement which fills the grooves preferably will be slightly above the face of the road and will have a different physical composition than the road surface which will form an effective anti-skid surface. It is not practical to place preformed hardened strips of abrasive concrete material in the surface of a concrete road as it is being formed, but with the present invention the abrasive cement may be filled into grooves which are cut in the road after it has been laid and hardened to form a monolithic surface that will have a strength substantially equal to that of the original surface and still provide an effective non-skid surface.

The preferred form of the invention having been thus described, what is claimed as new is:

1. Apparatus for grooving previously formed and cured hard surface roads whereby abrasive material may be filled into the grooves, comprising a mobile frame designed to span the width of the road area to be processed, a trackway in said frame, a carriage movable along the trackway, motor-driven means on the frame'for moving the carriage along the trackway at a uniform predetermined speed, a mounting member suspended from the carriage having a cutter shaft with rotatable cutters thereon carried by the mounting member, the cutter shaft being transverse to the direction of travel of the carriage, means for driving the cutter shaft, the suspension for the mounting member from the carriage including a lifting means on the carriage, and a link providing limited relative movement between the mounting member and the lifting means for raising and lowering the mounting member.

2. A machine for cutting grooves into a road surface comprising a mounting on which is carried a driving motor and shaft, said shaft having a plurality of cutting disks thereon, a carriage from which the mounting is pivotally hung at one end, the other end of said mounting being hung from the carriage by a link, a lifting mechanism on the carriage with which the link is engaged and relative to which the link has a limited vertical motion whereby as the cutters cut the surface beneath them the mounting may lower by gravity to the limit permitted by the link and lifting mechanism to thereby control the depth of the cut, a frame, a trackway in the frame along which the carriage is movable, and motordriven means on the frame for driving the carriage back and forth along the trackway.

3. A machine for cutting grooves into a road surface as defined in claim 1 in which the axis about which one end of the mounting pivots relative to the carriage is transverse to the length of the trackway along which the carriage moves.

4. A machine as defined in claim 2 wherein there is a hopper on the carriage at one side of said mounting located in a position to discharge plastic abrasive compound into the grooves cut by the cutters progressively as the cutters advance, and means associated with the hopper for compacting material discharged therefrom into the grooves.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 689,064 Butler et al. Dec. 17, 1901 1,675,198 Scott June 26, 1928 1,964,746 Sloan July 3, 1934 2,013,406 Gibbs Sept. 3, 1935 2,131,571 Rinehart Sept. 27, 1938 2,148,595 Ulrich Feb. 28, 1939 2,244,742 Tyson June 10, 1941 2,311,891 Tyson Feb. 23, 1943 2,351,755 Gettleman June 20, 1944 2,502,043 Howard Mar. 28, 1950 2,515,311 Nagin July 18, 1950 2,636,425 Heltzel Apr. 29, 1953 

